Specifications

University of Hertfordshire
15
3.4 GPIB Card Selection
Three GPIB Cards are available in Telecommunication Laboratory (D416) of the University of
Hertfordshire:

Agilent 82350B PCI GPIB Interface Card

Varian GPIB Card

PCL-848A/B Multifunction IEEE-488 Interface Card
Both Agilent GPIB Card and Varian GPIB Card are not suitable for this project. Agilent GPIB Card
only support Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP, so it useless in this project. In addition Varian GPIB
Card also can not be driven in Linux Machine. Therefore, PCL-848A/B Multifunction IEEE-488
Interface Card is used to communicate with Server and Spectrum Analyser in this project.
It has following features:

It supports Microsoft C, Turbo C, Lattice C and C86.

It can be selected to operate in one of the two mode:
Mode A: it provides compatibility with PCL-748 IEEE-488 interface card.
Mode N: it provides compatibility with NI PC-II and IBM-PC GP-IB adaptor.

It fully implement IEEE-488 standard

It is a powerful and easy-to-use software command set. And it has fewer arguments and
simple initialization.

It has on-board RAM for working space, and no system memory space is needed for the
IEEE-488 interface operation.

It has built-in 16-bit digital output port, which provides a convenient and economical
solution for signal switching and digital control applications. Its D/O port is compatible with
the boards: PCLD-785 Relay Output Board, PCLD-786 SSR& Relay Driver Board and
PCLD-789 Amplifier & Multiplexer Board.

It can change the PC printer port to an IEEE-488 device by using its software.

It has a high speed Direct Memory Access (DMA) WITH THE ability to handle 64 byte
arrays.

It has programmable system controller, active controller or device functions.

All of its device functions, addresses, interrupt conditions, and parallel poll response are